The cicadas are back.
All over Western Pennsylvania, cicadas have been slowly emerging from their 17-year-slumber. They’re loud, they’re everywhere … and, if you know what to do with them, they can be delicious.
Jenny Bardwell of Rising Creek Bakery & Café in Mt. Morris has been baking with cicadas ever since they first appeared in Greene County a couple of weeks ago.
“You have to gather them when they’re young,” she says. “Otherwise, they get tough, so try to get them as soon as they emerge.”
After collecting the cicadas, the next step is to freeze them, she says. Gather the cicadas in a plastic zip-lock bag, and freeze, at least overnight. Freezing them also makes it easier to remove the heads, legs and wings, which will leave you with the meatiest part to munch.
Bardwell says the easiest way to prepare cicadas is to roast them. For sweet cicadas to use in baking, she seasons them with sugar, and then roasts them on a sheet pan for seven to eight minutes at 325 degrees. For a savory snack, season the cicadas with salt, pepper, and assorted seasonings to your taste before roasting.
“You can also chop them up and put them in your recipe, “Bardwell says, “But I like to leave them whole, because I think it’s nice to see what you’re eating.”
At Rising Creek Bakery & Cafe, Bardwell has been putting whole roasted cicadas on her Cicada Crunch Chocolate Chip cookies (added to the dough before they go in the oven), and on top of ice cream. “It gives it a nice ‘butterscotch’ crunch,” she says. As for the taste? Roasted cicadas are nutty, and take on the flavor of their sesasonings.
And her customers loved the cicada menu items.
“I think it’s mostly the gross factor,” she says.
In Bardwell’s area, cicada season has already passed, meaning no more cicadas on the menu. But, the insects emerge at staggered times throughout different regions, so there’s still hope if you want to try them for yourself this year.
Rising Creek Bakery (115 Main Street, Mt. Morris)
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